Special Opps U.S. entrepreneurs are serving others in Iraq--and making a living in the process.

Mark Wilson knows something about Iraq from his days in the first Gulf War. As a former Marine, he also got a taste of Bosnia and Grenada. Now, after years in the private sector spent mostly helping high-tech startups, he's a Clifton Park, New York, franchisee of The Growth Coach, a national franchise of coaches for self-employed and small-business owners.

The 47-year-old entrepreneur has restructured his business and created a Web site, www.operationenduringbusiness.com, to tap into a new market: entrepreneurs who are military reservists and need strategies to keep their businesses operating while they're deployed in Iraq. While Wilson's reservist clients pay him a fee, he has been considering turning part of his business into a nonprofit so he can reach more reservists, as the military would then promote his business to entrepreneurs in uniform.

Wilson, who's still in the Reserve, could very well become his own client. At press time, he was waiting to see if he would be assigned to another military operation-fortunately for him and his family, this could possibly be a desk job in Washington, DC.